upfront-luke-sara

As a content management system that powers 25% of the web, WordPress is arguably one of the easiest platforms to build a site, with tons of plugins allowing users to basically do almost anything from the most basic tasks to the incredibly complex ones. To create a site layout, users can choose from massive number of themes ranging from free, premium with one-off payment to the ones that require monthly/yearly subscription. Finding the right theme that fits one’s needs is always one of the toughest challenge when starting a WordPress site. No single user would have the time (and patience) to browse all the available themes, let alone that not all of them are accessible from the WordPress theme directory. Therefore, people wanting to build a site with specific type of design would still have a hard time to find a suitable theme. Building one is also an option, but it requires some technical skills that not everyone has.

upfront-fixer

Upfront is a design platform, a WordPress theme that user can customise into any kind of layout s/he likes. More than just changing few settings, users can open Upfront Editor to access visual drag-and-drop layout, enabling unlimited possibilities of site design. There are currently 16 elements to be added into any web page: text, image, gallery, slider, map, menu, widget, YouTube, LikeBox, contact, code, tabs, accordion, button, login and posts. We can arrange these elements as much as we like, in any order, any position, apply any color and styling to them. There are currently 6 themes derived from Upfront parent theme: Spirit, Fixer, Scribe, Panino, Parrot, Luke + Sara. Each theme is designed for specific type of use, but users can easily change them into anything else as necessary.

upfront-spirit

Each page is built from regions. We can define as many regions as we like. Defining a region as global will show it in other pages. We can set a background image to a region, or we can opt to use solid color, video, image slider or map. Creating parallax effect on the background image can be achieved by simply selecting an option in its settings. Elements are added into regions, allowing nice and clean organisation of a page. Responsive Mode feature allow site owners to design different layout for tablets or mobile devices with smaller screen. They can rearrange elements for a particular responsive breakpoint, along with the ability to hide some elements.

upfront-panino

Upfront settings allow users to create a wide possibility of appearances without understanding HTML or CSS. Appearance settings are organised into presets. Each preset is associated with certain setting items such as background color, border, etc. Changing the setting items for a preset will automatically change the look of all corresponded elements using the same preset. User can create as many presets as they like, even though keeping the number to a minimum is considered a better design practice and a wiser choice for site performance.

upfront-parrot

Advanced users with some knowledge can do more by adding custom CSS into any preset. This will allow virtually any possible effect available to CSS, while still maintaining easy to use interface to most ordinary users who just want to quickly build a site. Built-in posts/pages/comments and media management make it easier to do some work without leaving Upfront Editor interface. Undo and redo buttons make it easy for users to design without worry. Theme settings allow site owners to define font typeface of each heading/element type as well as defining global theme colors.

upfront-scribe

Not everyone has the luxury of time when creating a site. Not everyone has the technical skill to turn a web design into reality. Having a design platform allowing people to achieve a design faster and easier would surely bring benefits to individuals and businesses. Upfront is available through membership subscription at WPMU DEV, the largest premium WordPress site on the web.

 

Disclaimer: I am the project manager responsible for Upfront development. I work for the company behind WPMU DEV and this awesome framework. All the information written in this article is true on the date of writing. Things might change in future releases.